Thanks, Darby. For some reason, I have in my notes that Dance is a Uni career.

It's been fun reading about how the challenge has been for everyone. The ghosts definitely make things much tougher. I thought I was doing so well, and I was, until the fire killed so many at once! Next time, I think I'll have fewer counters and maybe the fire won't last so long.

The hints helped a lot, especially about having the various facilities -- shower, toilet, sink -- in separate rooms. I also made a reading alcove for the recliner, a separate room with an entry arch. That way the napping sim wouldn't wake up every time the phone rang or the TV was on.

You're welcome.

Fewer counters do help, or you can make the stove free-standing. With nothing on either side, fires will likely stay just on the stove. Also, use the Shiny Thyme cooktop stove that's used in dorms. No oven, no chance any sims will put something in and forget about it.

Of course, making things too safe might make the challenge a bit boring.

I've always wanted to try this challenge out, and I finally got around to setting everything up yesterday. And boy, is it fun!

I played for four and a half Sim days, and already had two fires caused by lightning, two patients who peed their pants, one who passed out, two who went into aspiration failure and the whole group was constantly complaining about hunger, hygiene, boredom and exhaustion. It's just what my overly-controlled game needed!

I made a banner for the asylum, as I'm planning to post updates of my progress on Tumblr.

A noob question: how much money do you start with if you don't use money cheats?
I built an asylum thinking it was 20000§, but after creating the family of eight, they actually have 55000§. I never create large families in CAS and therefore didn't expect that.

Edit: I redid the asylum building spending the real funds (55000§) of the household. They have a piano now, and more lights and phones, and it's bigger. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same. Well except for the tall fence all around the lot, we don't want any of the patients escaping and possibly harming themselves or others, do we :p

Last edited by Lili975 : 21st Mar 2013 at 01:21 PM.

From the LOT/BUILDING section of the rules in the original post, two options:

You may cheat for money to build but when you are done building before starting to play, you must reduce your funds to 100 simoleons. You may then NOT buy anything else from build or buy mode during the game except to replace stolen or repossessed items as long as you buy the exact same item.

If you do not cheat for money to build, you do not need to reduce your funds prior to playing and may continue to buy any décor items as the game continues, such as windows, flooring, wallpaper, pictures, plants, lights and pretty knickknacks. You may NOT buy anything that serves any purpose other than décor – including surfaces, seating, walls, doors and skill objects. The only exception is that you may replace stolen or repossessed items as long as you buy the exact same item.

My personal preference is option one, so I can set the asylum up however I want without money being an issue. And in fact, next time I do this, I'll be building the asylum before I move in the inmates, so I can bin it and have a safe, clean copy of the lot to use in the future. First method will definitely work better for that.

Different subject: Has anyone considered doing this with a vampire for the controllable sim? I had that idea on my brain when I woke up this morning.

I've read the rules, and I guess the answer was pretty obvious, but I don't know, due to my spartan way of building, 55000§ just seemed like a lot Thank you!

As for your morning dream, good luck if you try, you'll need plenty ^^

Point is, regardless of how much money you start with, cheats or no, it's a simple matter to reduce the funds to 100 Simoleans before you start the challenge in earnest.

I think some rule-tweaking will be in order for a vampire controllable, at least with regard to feasible LTWs. Beyond that, the challenge will be achieving the LTW with a sim who's out of commission for 12 hours a day. My challenge button is really being pushed by this, though. :D

There's that and there's keeping vampires alive with 7 inmates possibly waking him up, using the coffin, blocking the access to it, interrupting his meditation in various ways, etc.
Just the other day, I almost lost a vampire (his wife was able to plead for his life) because he had food poisoning and was sick several times in a row by a sunny afternoon. And that's while controlling the entire household...

I may be cocky, but I don't think it'll be that hard. Especially once meditation is possible. Really, the only things that can knock a sim out of meditation are low needs (I'm pretty good at keeping a vamp's needs up) and a death on the lot. In the case of the latter, they can be put right back in immediately.

Emergencies will be interesting, though. In my experience, vamps with needs all in high green can afford to be active indoors during daylight hours for at least an hour or two, before motive loss forces the issue. That's enough time to call the fire department, and maybe even to plead for a life, if necessary.

I could be very wrong, though. Eager to see how it may actually play out!

Well, only one way to find out, I guess... ^^

I'd personally never put my poor vamps through the terrors of a mental ward inhabited by seven insane daywalkers, but that's just me being squeamish about my favorite Sims creature.
Darby, do go ahead with your intention, and once you've set everything up, please post some screenshots so we can see how the vamp is doing. Cause, you know, 'pics-or-it-didn't-happen' and all that stuff. Speaking of which, here are some pics from the first day at my asylum.

One day, and they already managed to create a chaos. Fun times, fun times.

Last edited by Dagi_is_a_punk : 22nd Mar 2013 at 12:26 AM.

Okay, I finally have a report on my Vampire Asylum - yay!

In short, it failed.

I've got the whole thing loosely documented on my Simblr. Let me know whether or not the link works properly. (Not very Tumblr proficient yet.)
http://darby622.tumblr.com/
There are several entries, so you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to the first.

My takeaway from this experiment is that it's probably possible to do the challenge with a vampire, but some tweaks to the rules would need to be made. Mainly with regard to the coffin. I counted it as one of the five allowed beds, but tried to keep it for Ajay only, since it has higher comfort and energy ratings than what's allowed for normal beds.

Obviously, any LTWs that can be done without leaving the lot would be the best ones to roll, but I think the career-related LTWs are doable, but it's tough, and I think the failure rate would be very high.

I'll be trying this again, but perhaps not right away.

ETA: Daqi, I love that last pic of yours best, with the three worriers. Sims' worry faces always make me lol and go "ahhh" in sympathy, all at the same time. So cute.

Also, I apologize for the poor quality of the pics on my Simblr. I didn't realize that my settings were on medium for quality and size. Ugh. Also, my asylum is boringly bare, because I don't have a lot of CC installed right now. Reorganizing.

Kudos on trying it anyway! I had a look at your simblr, and now I don't regret having made my own Asylum too easy. I'm a beginner (first Asylum) and that would have been just too much unhappiness and death for me :D

Like we both experienced recently, sickness is one of the vampire's biggest enemy, making him uncontrollable (from coughing, like Ajay, or vomiting like mine) for too long.

A shame you forgot to adjust the pictures settings, the place looks good and the patients even have the gowns and all

Thank you, Lili!

I don't blame you for starting a bit easy for your first go-round. With some practice, it gets almost too easy, which is why I'm not at all averse to looking for ways to make it harder. The difficulty of this one was quite bracing.

ETA: I just checked yours out, Lili. Very funny! The see-through shiny black undies cracked me up, as did Lord Jim's outfit. Also, Pescado stealing the newspaper. I was fortunate not to have a newspaper stealer, since Ajay needed it to find a job. I usually remembered to put it inside, just in case, but I'd have hated to forget and miss out on a day of job-hunting. You lucked out with the Max All 7 Skills LTW!

I'm stealing the recliner idea. I usually use two modular couch pieces for the one nap-able item, and when I had to delete one piece of it this time, it was no longer nap-able. The recliner is a much better choice! I also think maybe a pond/super-filling fish meals may be a really good idea, especially in Asylums where ghosts are an issue.

Your pics look fabulous, btw! I also like the LJ format better than Tumblr.

Last edited by Darby : 29th Mar 2013 at 11:06 PM.

Thanks! But I must be honest and say that the recliner wasn't my idea. I don't know where I picked it from, but I did my homework, a little too well (recliner, everything in separate rooms ergo no door jams, stove without oven, etc.). Still I enjoyed the challenge, all uneventful that it was

I use both LJ and tumblr, I like tumblr for outtakes, the occasional funny or pretty picture, but I'm sticking with LJ otherwise. I think simblr posts are an instant thing, but nobody goes checking your old simblr entries. On LJ, I've read several years old legacies (and asylums :p), in my mind it's the place where things will stay. Tumblr is very confusing when you want to go through someone's older stuff :/

Anyway, still not ready for the vampire asylum, but I'll definitely retry with a real stove, a real job, etc. :p